Chuang Tzu Story - Can A Man Indeed Be Without Desires and Passions (人故无情乎？)

Hui-tsze said to Kwang-tsze, 'Can a man indeed be without desires and passions?'

The reply was, 'He can.'

'But on what grounds do you call him a man, who is thus without passions and desires?'

Kwang-tsze said, 'The Tâo gives him his personal appearance (and powers); Heaven gives him his bodily form; how should we not call him a man?'

Hui-tsze rejoined, 'Since you call him a man, how can he be without passions and desires?'

The reply was, 'You are misunderstanding what I mean by passions and desires. What I mean when I say that he is without these is, that this man does not by his likings and dislikings do any inward harm to his body;-- he always pursues his course without effort, and does not (try to) increase his (store of) life.'

Hui-tsze rejoined, 'If there were not that increasing of (the amount) of life, how would he get his body?'

Kwang-tsze said, 'The Tâo gives him his personal appearance (and powers); Heaven gives him his bodily form; and he does not by his likings and dislikings do any internal harm to his body. But now you, Sir, deal with your spirit as if it were something external to you, and subject your vital powers to toil. You sing (your ditties), leaning against a tree; you go to sleep, grasping the stump of a rotten dryandra tree. Heaven selected for you the bodily form (of a man), and you babble about what is strong and what is white.'